Nothing is stopping them from just transferring to an other server. And don't start with the "it's so expensive" crap. It's not expensive. I bet all of them spend several times that amount on crap each month.

As a student with no side job I don't really have that kind of spare money.

Originally Posted by Erin

I only saw a few minutes of it but it looked slicker than a lubed up olympic swimmer fleeing from a shark.

i just have this fear of going in there with a not geared alt and getting blasted to pieces by ppl using that item that turns u hostile to all... obviously only a problem in pvp servers but yeh think ill just gear my alts in lfr and stuff :P

You had 2 options for gearing your characters for ToT (besides ToT): LFR, and Valor gear. LFR is RNG-based, Valor Gear is slower than shit with their new system. Literally the other gear you can get, besides 516 blue-moon daily-bag gear, is just crap.

Don't forget Nalak the Loot Bag. He drops glove and leg tier pieces (ilvl 522) with fairly high frequency. Oondasta drops stuff too, but is rather obnoxious to get a kill on.

"There is a pervasive myth that making content hard will induce players to rise to the occasion. We find the opposite. " -- Ghostcrawler
"Almost every time I have gotten to know a critic personally, they keep up with the criticism but lose the venom." -- Ghostcrawler
I hate these casual Fridays ruining it for real Fridays.

Sad because these alt friendly changes really had to be here about oh.... 6 months ago... but better late than never I guess. Hope they can get back at least some of the numerous subs/player-base they lost.

have never understood why people have complained about gearing up alts
tbh i think they have made it pretty easy with heroic dungeons, cheap rep gear, heroic scenarios and god knows how many lfrs u can run a week with the scenario that gets you like 15 coins!
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Nothing is stopping them from just transferring to an other server. And don't start with the "it's so expensive" crap. It's not expensive. I bet all of them spend several times that amount on crap each month.

Most people expect that when they purchase the game for $60 (all expansions) and pay their $180 per year, that they will actually be able to play? That's at least what the box reads?

Now having to realize "Oh shit, I picked the wrong server and it's a pile of shit" and Blizzard then saying "well you can't play now, but you can play if you pay another $25" isn't a very good feeling.

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Originally Posted by Raidbozz

If he's that strapped for cash maybe he should save his 15 a month.

Which was my point all along... that's what people did. In your words, "GG"

You don't need to tell me how to gear, I outgear you by a lot. But that doesn't mean that the gearing process is good. I also kept up with the game from Day 1, for the most part.

Try telling that to people on literal dead servers.

Yeah gearing on Andorhal is pretty difficult to say the least. My guild was decent but basically retired from raiding in Cataclysm so most people left.
At peak hours there are maybe a dozen horde in Orgrimmar and maybe 20 more in the Shrine of Two Moons. Andorhal is basically the Simple Math server, they're rank 115 US.
I took a break in January and have just come back, and gearing is pretty slow. No way I'm paying for a transfer. I have 3 90s on this server and 5 85ish characters, and I've already spent way too much on character transfers and faction changes in the past. Let's be honest here, the prices that Blizzard charges for those services are greedy as hell. $25-30 dollars in a $15/month sub game? No thanks.

Most people expect that when they purchase the game for $60 (all expansions) and pay their $180 per year, that they will actually be able to play? That's at least what the box reads?

I'm pretty sure the box didn't promise you would be able to get into a raiding guild on every server etc. You are still able to play the game, the game still works whatever server you are on. Blizzard can't take responsibility for the player community.

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Originally Posted by voidspark

I'm pretty sure he's better aware of his financial situation than you are, despite the high horse you sit on.

I think he's lying if he says he doesn't have ~€20 he can spend on whatever he wants each month.

Most people expect that when they purchase the game for $60 (all expansions) and pay their $180 per year, that they will actually be able to play? That's at least what the box reads?

Now having to realize "Oh shit, I picked the wrong server and it's a pile of shit" and Blizzard then saying "well you can't play now, but you can play if you pay another $25" isn't a very good feeling.

Reroll on a better server then? Gearing isn't very hard to do and will be even easier when 5.4 comes out.

Bullshit. I've been doing heroic scenarios and running LFR constantly and i'm sitting on 511 on my mage and 510 on my prot pala. How the hell would you even be able to get 530 ilv without having luck? I barely get items from HC scenarios or LFR, so saying that i'm doing something wrong isn't really all that helpful when i'm doing all i can.

Yo, it's possible to be 532 without doing any normal mode raids. Just the 608 cloak and full 522 from oonda/nalak tier pieces, SPA gear, crafted gear, rest LFR. All upgraded ofc. 2/2

This is interesting. So, these tokens (the BoA ones) are basically very common, which means I could potentially get alts geared in 576/589/whatever the hell ilvl it is, within a day? Assuming of course I farm for the entire day. I still need to get my hunter a bow (hooray for still having 463 from scenario bag - i.e. no secondary stats and only 3200 DPS), and I'm really keen to get my Druid levelled up ready to step into LFR (and with DMF this week [10% XP buff], now is as good a time as ever). If I could skip over most of the early gearing process, arguably the most painful, then I'd be set.

I do have a question though - Since TI is set to become 'the new favourite place to bring alts', I have to question just how alt-friendly it is. Everything is designed to be taken on solo except bosses, but in what sense? The dino isle from 5.2, mobs there were possible to take on solo, but it certainly wasn't 'alt friendly' for the majority (the health pools are what put me off even on my main[s], and the damage they do just wasn't worth it - only Oondasta was worth hanging around for). Are these mobs the same as MoP-release mobs (e.g. 300K HP), or are they more along the lines of 5.1 mobs (i.e. 450K HP, and lots of them in close proximity), or are they along the lines of 5.2 mobs (i.e. 600K HP, soloable, but takes time), or more along the lines of 5.3 mobs (e.g. 900K-1.2M HP, special abilities, etc)? What sort of gear level would be appropriate to be taking on the mobs over there (assuming the lower-geared but average-skilled player who'll play more defensively or evasively regarding mob abilities)?

Originally Posted by Ghoulthaz

Bullshit. I've been doing heroic scenarios and running LFR constantly and i'm sitting on 511 on my mage and 510 on my prot pala. How the hell would you even be able to get 530 ilv without having luck? I barely get items from HC scenarios or LFR, so saying that i'm doing something wrong isn't really all that helpful when i'm doing all i can.

The maximum ilvl you can realistically get without stepping into Normal or Heroic raids is ~533. This includes getting extremely lucky with 535's on the BMAH, 522's from world bosses and crafting, and 2/2 upgrades on every slot -- oh, and the 600 cloak upgraded to 608, which as we all know is completely reliant on RNG. This, though, isn't something the majority can do. The majority, especially right now, won't be buying items for 20K, and the BMAH is extremely RNG-based.

As you can imagine, the average LFR raider who's been in TOT since release will be around 510-513. This alone still takes a massive amount of time (unless you're the only person in the entire game who managed to get 502's for every slot within the first few weeks of LFR, as opposed to duplicate items or multiple items for each slot) but it's entirely possible.

With that in mind, working your way up the 'guild ladder' from a guild barely breaking through normal to one farming heroic is gonna take some time, but it's really one of the only ways to push forwards. Unfortunately, this is a 'game society' issue, one that's been created by the community.

So I can start eating Ramen... just so I can actually play the game? Not surprising most people choose the restaurants. Just so you know, you guys with your high horses are actually the "poor community." As you gleefully pointed out, of course I still play the game and maintain a geared toon. But it's obvious that the number of people who left the game is massive and exactly for this reason, both in terms of personal anecdotes (the amount of realID that I have "last online: 4 months" or something with exact reasons I know for why they left, number of guildmates that have left and not been replaced) and completely confirmed by overall worldwide numbers.

And those losses due to shitty gearing system, shitty realm setup, shitty pugging, do affect me even if my main toon can handle gearing.

Some of the fanboy Blizzard die-hards will say that "even with 1 million players this is still the best game EVAR" but ask yourself if 7/8 of the game population - including your RealID, your guild, your realm were just decimated tomorrow... would you really still keep playing?

I'm pretty sure the box didn't promise you would be able to get into a raiding guild on every server etc. You are still able to play the game, the game still works whatever server you are on. Blizzard can't take responsibility to fix the community.

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I think he's lying if he says he doesn't have ~€20 he can spend on whatever he wants each month.

Maybe more devs should approach this random approach to game design. Chop out a few levels in every few copies leaving it to blind luck which purchaser get's to own the full game? I'm sure devs could get away with randomly taking out things like cinematics or VOs? How about a pot-luck approach to what MP maps you purchase? Should really spice up the gaming market, don't you think.
Player experience on dead realms is absolutely Blizzard's responsibility. Hence their "Connected Realms" solution. It's only in bizzaro-world (or someone who doesn't yet have a family) who can say fifteen quid for a single character transfer isn't a substantial amount of money. Christ, I could just see my wife's face when that Visa bill in and I told her I spent 150 bangers transferring my WoW chars to a realm where I could PuG in. Hell, fifteen quid spent would see me on the couch.